A trip to the Beach with Mme Blavatsky
[This month, JULY 2025, the Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, will be releasing a new volume of H. P. Blavatsky’s writings containing material previously unavailable in English. The book is part of the H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings series and marks its concluding volume as planned by the compiler, Boris de Zirkoff. Comprised of English translations of the various series that HPB wrote for the Russian papers, the volume, titled Russian Serials, offers an insightful account of American life during the author’s time there, her attendance at a reception for the new Viceroy of India, and her visit to the Blue Mountains of Madras and the mysterious tribes that inhabited it. Russian Serials can be considered a companion piece to the other previously translated volume from the Russian papers, From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan.
The following excerpt translated from the Tiflis Messenger of 25 September (13 September in Russian old-style calendar) 1878, written under the pseudonym of the “Voice”, is exemplar of HPB’s narrative style to be found throughout this book. It is based on an actual trip HPB, Col. Olcott, and a TS member took to East Hampton, NY*, in July 1878. Olcott records in his Diary that during the time they spent at the beach, HPB “presented a most amusing appearance, paddling about in the surf with her legs, and showing an infantile glee almost to be in such splendid magnetism” (cited in Gomes’ Dawning of the Theosophical Movement, 1987, p. 184). The rest of the story is now obtainable from TPH Adyar. — Michael Gomes]
Note from the editor:
*In the late 1870’s, East Hampton, New York, was transitioning from a rural farming community to a popular summer resort destination, attracting artists and wealthy families. The extension of the railway to Bridgehampton in the 1870’s made the area more accessible. This led to the development of boarding houses and the construction of "cottages," many in the Shingle style, on former farms and pastures.
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